How To Use The Stokastic Sims For DFS Cash Games

The Sims have a reputation as a tournament weapon, and that reputation is earned. But the question we get more than almost any other is a quieter one: "This is great for GPPs, but what do I actually do for cash?" It's a fair question, because cash is a different game with a different goal, and the way you point the Sims at it changes. The good news is that the staff method for cash is almost boringly simple, and by the end of this you'll know the one sort that actually matters and why "percent to first" is not the cash-game lever people think it is.

TL;DR

• Cash Rewards Floor, Not Ceiling. You only need to beat roughly half the field, so you want the safest, highest-projected lineup, not the contrarian one.
• The Staff Method: run the Contest Generator, let the Sims build the pool, then sort by raw projection (not simulated ROI) and take the top build.
• Percent To First Barely Matters For Cash. It changes how lineups are graded, not what pool gets built, and you're sorting on projection anyway. If you touch it at all, use the low, consistency end.
• One Lineup, Entered Everywhere. Copy that top build into every cash game and head-to-head, the way most pros do. Keep it separate from your GPP builds.
• Same Tool, Two Jobs: floor-first for cash, upside for tournaments. Full Stokastic Sims access does both in one workflow.

Watch: Contest Sims And How They Build Lineups

Before the method, here's a walk-through of the Contest Sims and how they generate a lineup pool in the first place. The cash approach below is a small twist on this same workflow.

Watch on YouTube

Cash Games Are A Different Game Than Tournaments

Cash games (double-ups, 50/50s, head-to-heads) pay everyone above the line the same. You don't need to win the slate; you need to beat roughly half the field. That single fact flips the objective: in a GPP you're chasing a ceiling and differentiating from the field, but in cash you want the highest floor you can build, the lineup least likely to have a hole in it.

That's why you use the Sims differently for cash. The tournament machinery, simulated ROI, leverage off chalk, contrarian pivots, exists to find lineups that win outright. None of that is what wins a double-up. So for cash we keep the pool-building power of the Sims and switch off the tournament brain.

The Staff Cash Method: Build The Pool, Then Sort By Projection

Here's the whole method, and it's the one we've walked through in office hours more times than I can count: build your player pool like you always would and let the Contest Sims generate their lineups, then, instead of ranking that output by simulated ROI, sort the lineups by raw projection and take the highest-projected builds off the top. That's it. You're using the Sims as a lineup builder and sorting the output by projection, not by tournament upside.

1. Open the Contest Sims for your sport and load the slate.
2. Set your player pool the usual way and let the Sims build the lineups (they factor stack correlation in for you, so you're not left with a scattered roster).
3. Sort the generated lineups by projection, not simulated ROI.
4. Take the top lineup, or the top few if you're spreading a little.

Prefer to work from your own numbers? You can do the exact same thing in the pre-contest simulator with your projections uploaded and sort those by projection. Either path lands you in the same place: the highest-projected build the tool can find, which is the floor-first lineup you want for cash.

This works because of the split between the two jobs I mentioned up top. The Contest Sims are a tournament tool by design, but the lineup builder underneath them is sport-agnostic and format-agnostic. Sorting by projection is how you tell it to prioritize the highest-projected build instead of the highest simulated ROI, without ever touching the tournament levers.

A Quick Worked Example

Let me walk the exact clicks I'd make for a cash lineup on a typical MLB main slate (the same flow we cover step by step in how to use the MLB DFS Sims). I open the Contest Sims, load the slate, and build my player pool the same way I would for a tournament, so I'm not stripping anything down. Then I go to the lineup output and switch the sort from simulated ROI over to projection. The build that pops to the top is my cash lineup: the highest total projected points the tool can assemble under the cap, with the Sims still handling stack correlation so I'm not left holding a scattered roster.

From there I do almost nothing:

• No ROI boosts for leverage.
• No exposure caps.
• No touching percent to first.
• Copy that one lineup into every cash game and head-to-head on the slate.

Total time is a couple of minutes, most of it spent confirming nobody in the build is a late scratch. That is the entire cash workflow, and the discipline is in what you don't do to it.

Tip: Projections keep moving through lock as lineups, injuries, weather, and odds land, so re-sort right before you lock and watch for late scratches. One benched hitter can wreck a floor lineup you thought was set. Our Live Before Lock show is built for exactly that pre-lock window.

Why "Percent To First" Is The Wrong Lever For Cash

This is the one that trips people up, because the most common cash question is literally "what percent to first should I set?" Here's the honest answer: for cash, it barely matters, and reaching for it is a small warning sign.

Percent to first changes how lineups are graded, not what field gets generated. In a GPP you match it to the payout: a $1 million prize pool that pays $200,000 to first is a 20% to first contest, and a top-heavy Milly Maker might run closer to 25%, as we walked through in our NFL Contest Sims video. A high setting there ranks contrarian, ceiling-chasing builds higher, which is exactly right when you have to finish first; a low setting favors consistent, chalkier lineups. Since the cash method sorts on projection rather than on that simulated grade, the setting is mostly moot. If you do lean on it at all, cash wants the consistent end of the dial, never the high, contrarian tournament setting.

So keep the tournament tools in the tournament lane. Simulated ROI, leverage, and a cranked percent-to-first are how you win a GPP; they are not a cash workflow. The table below is the full split.

Lever	Tournaments (GPP)	Cash / Head-to-Head
Sort Lineups By	Simulated ROI	Raw projection
Percent To First	High (top-heavy payouts)	Not the lever; floor first
Ownership / Leverage	Central to the edge	Mostly ignore it
Uniques / Exposure	Spread across the portfolio	One optimal lineup
The Goal	Ceiling and differentiation	Floor and beating half the field

The row I keep coming back to is ownership. In a GPP, being off the field's chalk is where a lot of your edge lives. In cash, chasing that same leverage actively works against you, because you're trading floor for a differentiation you don't need. Fade the urge to get cute; the boring lineup is the correct one.

Building your cash lineup by projection? The Stokastic Sims do the job in one place: they generate your lineups and grade them against a simulated field of thousands of opponents, so you get our projections and the finished cash build without a separate optimizer. Take 10% off your first payment with code CASHSIMS10. Start with the Sims

One Lineup, Entered Everywhere

Once you have your top cash build, you don't need to reinvent it for every contest. The same lineup across all your cash games and head-to-heads is fine; it's what most pros do. Head-to-heads are just cash with one opponent, so treat them identically: projection first, ownership almost irrelevant.

The one thing to keep straight is that this is not the same lineup you fire into GPPs. Cash and tournaments call for opposite builds, so you'll have your one floor-first cash lineup living everywhere in your cash pool, and a separate, more differentiated set of builds for the tournaments. Same tool, two very different jobs.

Do You Even Need The Sims For Cash?

It's a fair pushback: if the cash method is "sort by projection," couldn't you do that anywhere? You could, but the Sims give you the projections and the finished, correlation-aware build in one workflow, which is the reason a lot of our Discord regulars dropped their standalone optimizer entirely once they started running the Sims. If you want the full breakdown of why, we made the case in Stokastic Sims vs. optimizers.

The projections behind that build are also the part that moves the needle more than it looks. They start updating early in the day and keep moving through lock as lineups, weather, and odds shift, so the highest-projected cash build you pull at noon can look different by first pitch. It's worth a last sort right before you lock. To sanity-check the pieces before you build, the live projections in the DataHub show you what's driving the numbers.

If you have a genuine read on a player, the pre-contest simulator lets you upload your own projections and build from those. One honest caution we always give: the sim takes your word for it. Change a projection and every lineup with that player gets graded on your assumption, so a fat-fingered 50 that becomes 500 will make a build look elite for no reason. When your read is right, that's your edge over the field; just re-check the big edits before you trust a run.

A Few Honest Caveats

Cash is lower-variance than a Milly Maker, not no-variance. You'll still lose nights where your floor build ran into a bad beat, and that's the sport, not a broken process. Judge yourself over a real sample, and lean on the Post-Contest Simulator to see the long-term expected ROI of what you actually played rather than reacting to one evening. Raw sim ROI numbers are a ranking tool, not a promise; what matters is that you're taking the best lineup the tool points you to.

The through-line here is discipline over cleverness. Tournaments are where imagination pays off; cash is where restraint does. The Sims' cash job is to hand you the highest-projected lineup fast, so you can save your creativity for the contests that actually reward it. Build the safe one, enter it everywhere it belongs, and go spend your energy on the tournaments.

FAQ

What percent to first should I use for cash games in the Sims? For cash you're sorting lineups by projection, not by simulated ROI, so percent to first barely matters. If you set it at all, use the low, consistency-favoring end, never the high contrarian setting you'd use for a top-heavy tournament.

Can I use the same lineup for all my cash games and head-to-heads? Yes. One highest-projected build entered across every cash game and head-to-head is standard practice. Just don't reuse that same lineup in your GPPs, where you want a more differentiated build.

In cash games, should I target ownership or value? Value, meaning projection and floor. This holds across sports, whether you're playing MLB, NBA, or NHL cash. Ownership and leverage are tournament tools; in any sport's cash you build the highest-projected lineup and let the ownership games happen in the GPPs.

Do I need an optimizer if I use the Sims for cash? No. The Sims build and grade the lineups themselves, which is the job an optimizer plus hand-curation used to do. Sort the Sims output by projection and take the top build.

Are the Contest Sims only for tournaments? They're built for GPPs, and that's where their leverage and simulated-ROI tools shine. But the lineup builder underneath works for cash too, as long as you sort by projection and leave the tournament levers alone.

New to the Sims? They build your cash lineup by projection and your GPP lineups by upside, all in one place. Take 10% off your first payment with code CASHSIMS10: get the Stokastic Sims. You can also try the free Sims or browse projections in the DataHub first.